


Toward Distant Horizons

by RushingWaters



Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Owen & Blue feels, Pack Dynamics, Post-Movie, Raptor Feels, the Indominus is messed up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-05 04:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14609790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RushingWaters/pseuds/RushingWaters
Summary: Everything became clear to him now. The trap laid by the scratches on the wall, the clawed-out tracker, the dead herd of apatosaurus carelessly slaughtered for sport... they were so much more than just ignorant atrocities committed by a maddened animal trying to discover her place on the food chain. No velociraptor gene was responsible for these behaviours. Each step of her wanton destruction had been premeditated with a meticulous, calculated, sadistic brutality impossible for any animal to conceive.What if the Indominus was more intelligent than any of them had realized.





	1. Killer

**Author's Note:**

> Random headcanon after catching up on Jurassic World. I thought the Indominus was too pretty to kill off, so...

The raptor's screech cut off mid-scream as flames sprang to engulf her body. For a moment her jaws continued to stretch wide, soundlessly caught in an agony too great to give voice, before the writhing limbs finally stilled under the blossoming of stiff black blisters and the bliss mercy of death.

The sharp flash of firelight briefly illuminated the night, glinting off pale scales and crimson eyes and rows of long teeth open in a roar of triumph. It was close enough to Owen's hiding spot to feel its incinerating heat on exposed skin, smell the stench of charred flesh and putrid fear, and for a second the scene was so strangely reminiscent of Charlie's death that he could hardly breathe from the force of the still-recent memory. The licking blades of fire in the grill-turned-crematory merged with blades of long grass waving in the same breeze on the same night, and reptilian amber eyes locked on his from beyond the orange flames, head cocked as if in question, the unblinking gaze filled with alien, primal innocence.

An exceptionally shrill shriek sounded nearby, vibrant in its intensity. Owen allowed himself a last long look into the now slowly roasting fire before turning away, green light spots imprinted across his vision. He had to blink his eyes a few times before taking advantage of the remaining clarity to duck out for a few well-aimed shots at the Indominus' face and softer undersides, knowing full well the futility of the action; the hybrid's hide was thick enough to take on Hoskins' machine guns. Shotgun bullets had nothing on her.

But they served to distract the Indominus long enough for Delta to regain her feet from where she was thrown to the ground. With another shrieking cry the last remaining raptor leapt back into the attack, all slashing claws and biting teeth, and in a fleeting moment of despair, Owen wondered if she too knew the futility of her efforts – because there was no possibility in which she can win this fight.

Her sisters were already dead, and she was soon to follow. Then it would be him, then Claire, then her young nephews. One raptor stood between them and gruesome death at the jaws of a monster. There was nowhere to run, the island was her domain now.

It was not a comforting thought, though it did seem to hold grim truth. As Owen watched from the concealment of the amber statue, the Indominus caught Delta between her jaws and tore the raptor from her back, heedless of her desperate screams, at once muscles in the huge jaw strained and flexed; the thrashing body went limp almost instantly. In a way the death was almost simple: the debilitating responses of terror and grief, of which he had kept so carefully repressed since escaping the Indominus paddock, did not strike straightaway; his perception of the scene still seemed distant, unfocused, as if it had jammed in the process of going through the this-is-reality part of his brain and was not yet receptive of what he was seeing. At this oddest of times, he remembered once reading on a park brochure that a tyrannosaurus had a bite force equivalent to three cars – the sharp, wet crunch of splintering bone and tearing flesh was perfectly audible in the warm night air, and realization suddenly hit him like a boxer's glove.

Now it was his turn.

The Indominus flung the broken body away with vicious force before she turned to Owen's amber hiding place. She knew he was there, and he knew that as well, those red eyes were uncanny in their cruel expressiveness. They almost had a mutual understanding of the way the Indominus liked to play her game. In the false silence he could imagine her head snaking along the ground beside his hiding place, trying to stretch the tension to the utmost for the ultimate sweetness of the final snap, biding her time to terrorize her prey before the final pounce.

Owen held his breath and braced for the inevitable. The Indominus crooned, raptor-like, soft and friendly, right by his ear. Two can play this game, he thought, tightening the shotgun in his grip. It remained steady only by virtue of sheer will and ingrained military training. The Indominus was in for a nasty surprise once it pokes its head around. He'd empty his magazine in her face before getting eaten, and hope it stings like fury. It would be nice if a bullet finds its way into her eye…

A screech suddenly rang above him, followed by a deafening roar. Owen barely had time to dive out of the way before the amber exploded without warning. A thick tail thrashed in its place, its owner snarling and clawing and turning in wild circles in effort to dislodge the raptor assaulting its back.

"Blue!"

Owen had thought her dead after she did not get up from being smashed into the pillar. Now the striped raptor shrilled down at him from her precarious perch, talons digging resolutely into the thick ashen skin, and the sight of seeing her alive briefly filled him with overwhelming relief and joy. But the moment of eucatastrophe was short-lived as reality came crashing back in; she was still ridiculously outmatched, just another lone raptor dwarfed against the massive bulk of the Indominus. Though Blue was cleverer with her fighting tactics, positioning herself on the Indominus' neck beyond the reach of the snapping jaws to strike at the eyes and throat, the odds did not favour her any more than her sisters. Between her prowess and the remainder of Owen's bullets they managed to occupy the Indominus for a few long minutes, but then Blue slipped, far enough for the Indominus to snag a solid grip on her haunches, and one angry swipe sent her skidding across the amber shards, leaving streaks of wet darkness trailed on the pavement. Immediately the Indominus lunged, long teeth bared for the kill.

Owen would never know what exactly came over him at that moment, to make him do what he did. He only felt his heart stop at the sight of the Indominus' open mouth swooping towards a still struggling Blue, and before he had time to think, time to register anything other than the suffocating blankness of  _fear_ , he had launched himself in front of the raptor, shoving her away with both hands.

"Go!"

At his unexpected movement, the Indominus paused in her murderous lunge, just for a few seconds. Her savage red gaze flicked between him and Blue with something akin to interest, and Owen grasped at the valuable reprieve to further emphasize his command.

"You did good, Blue," he said softly. The raptor had staggered back a few steps from the force of his push, now she stood looking at him a little way away, head tilting in minute movements that indicated confusion. Owen tried to draw breath, tried not to feel the slick mixture of sweat and raptor blood coating his hands, tried to ignore the presence of the gigantic lethal killer  _right there_  waiting to bite his head off, and forced his voice to be as calm and assured as possible. "You did good, and now it's time to run. Go. Get out of here. Go! Go!"

Blue chittered indecisively at first. But with the intonation of each emphatic he could see the effects of the command begin to kick in, the reflexive response drilled deep by long sessions of repetitive training and backed by natural instincts of self-preservation. She turned and ran, legs capable of fifty miles per hour loping easily over the debris-cluttered ground.

A raptor, at least, had the speed to still outrun this.

Part of him knew this as foolishness, as irrational sentiment. She was a velociraptor, a dangerous, willful, predatory animal, as her pack had ruthlessly verified in their earlier betrayal, not some household pet or easy-mannered mammalian capable of reciprocating affection with trust and loyalty. The bond that he shared with Blue and her sisters, though carefully cultivated through years of dedicated interaction to as close as a human can get with her species, was a tenuous one at best: one based on habitual tolerance and the promise of food in exchange for grudging obedience rather than true affection or devotion, which was even then constantly pushed and challenged by the predatory wildness of their natures. Why offer her the chance to live, at the cost of his own life, when it was unlikely that she would even recognize the gravity of the gesture, much less thank him for it?

She was just an animal, after all.

Because he was going to die here anyway, his mind supplied from a place detached beyond fear, resolutely pushing away Charlie's image. Animal or not, there was no point in dragging another down for the sake of only marginally delaying the unescapable.

The Indominus did not give Owen the chance to regret his monumental moment of idiocy before finally losing patience. She knocked him to the ground carelessly, jaws gaping, but broke the action mid-bite to swing her head away with an irritated growl.

Owen wondered why she was making him wait for the guillotine to fall even as he took the chance to scrabble backwards and scramble to his feet. A familiar shriek assaulted his ears, sounding uncomfortably close, and he had to keep himself from grinding his teeth when he looked around to see Blue standing not four feet away, neck extended in another cry of challenge. Of all the worst times she had chosen to defy him–– Of all the possible times she  _could_  have chosen to show her loyalty–– She just  _had_  to pick one that was going to end up with both of them dead.

But the Indominus did not attack, at least not instantly. Instead she watched them with a keen gaze, head slightly tilted; the strange light of interest was back in her eyes, an unpleasant curiosity, combined with… was it contemplation? Owen did not like what he saw there. Something in the red gaze was too uncannily perceptive, too un-primitive. It exhibited an almost sentient level of awareness that had no business being in the eyes of an animal.

Those eyes suddenly loomed uncomfortably closer as the Indominus leaned down on all fours, causing Owen to nearly jump out of his skin. She gave a rasping shriek at Blue, and the raptor screeched back, undaunted, claws flexing warily. Then the Indominus made another vocalization, restlessly tossing her head close enough to make Owen stumble back before returning to tower over Blue, the sounds going back and forth almost like a conversation. It reminded Owen ominously of the communication they'd shared before turning on Hoskins' men – and himself.

The Indominus shrieked again. Although he still had no idea of what was being said, this time Blue's reaction at once made her answer clear. Her body recoiled sharply, tail lashing and eyes narrowing in anger, if she had ears, Owen was sure that they would have lain flat against her head. She barked once, the single sound grating against Owen's eardrums and somehow managing to convey a world of anger and defiance.

A strange chuffing sound came from the Indominus' throat. The great crimson irises briefly disappeared behind a long, slow blink, and Owen saw it coming a split instant after it was too late.

One of the Indominus' front claws shot out, swift as a striking snake. Owen barely had time to twist on instinct to protect his vitals before searing agony ripped across his back and left shoulder, the razor talons shredding through layers of leather and fabric and skin and muscle like hot knife through butter. The sharpness of the pain momentarily closed his senses: his vision swam and darkened in the already-dim night, and a distressed scream sliced through the air, cutting impossibly past the haze of shock straight to the raw exposed nerves of torn flesh. It took him a belated second to realize that the scream was not his.

Nor was it even human.

At once Owen felt his blood run cold, even as the wounds on his back burned with fiery intensity. With a labored gasp, he straightened against the pain, raking his gaze wildly around his surroundings. The Indominus regarded him cooly,  _expectantly_ , posture perfectly passive. She made no further move to attack, because there was no longer any need – the last vestiges of Blue's scream were already curled into a feral snarl as she turned towards him, nostrils flared and sickle claws poised to spring, pupils dilated with a feral hunger that predominated everything other than the desire to hunt and kill for that hunger to be sated.

"Blue." Owen's throat was dry when he tried her name.

The raptor gave no sign of recognition, only lowered her head to draw scent deeply through open jaws before advancing a single step, her gaze fixated. Owen raised his hands in the halting gesture and stepped slowly back in return, trying to keep his movements deliberate. The pain made it difficult to think, but he recalled that back at the paddock they always had policies regarding open wounds in front of the carnivores – it was common sense really, nobody wanted to trigger a dangerous animal's hunting drives by smelling more like food than they already did. Now he could feel the warm liquid sliding down between shirt and skin as well as taste the coppery tang of his own blood in the air, and these sensations left him terribly exposed: they reduced him to nothing but the status of prey, just as he knew that the overwhelming scent of his fresh blood reduced Blue to nothing but the basest instincts of a predator. Sixty-five million years of inborn compulsions played against him; as Hoskins had so selflessly demonstrated, no amount of training was going to override  _that_.

So this was how it's going to be after all, Owen thought to himself, and he could not help the edge of bitterness that crept into his mind. As easily as that, the Indominus had turned them against each other yet again, right back to where they'd started.

_The Indominus_.

Understanding suddenly dawned upon him, like a wave breaking over rocks, drenching him to the bone in icy water. Owen whipped his head around, stared straight into those gleaming red eyes. The Indominus gazed calmly back at him, unblinking, and he registered for the first time the terrible acuteness, the sheer  _intelligence_ of the cruelty within the cold crimson depths.

Everything became clear to him now. The trap laid by the scratches on the wall, the clawed-out tracker, the dead herd of apatosaurus carelessly slaughtered for sport, they were so much more than just ignorant atrocities committed by a maddened animal trying to discover her place on the food chain. Earlier in the night she had convinced the raptors to defect and used them to hunt him down, and now by spilling his blood without fatal intent, she was again trying to use Blue to kill him, while she took on the passive role of the bystander. No velociraptor gene was responsible for these behaviours; the Indominus displayed a level of cunning and ability for manipulation that even the people she had killed would not have been capable of. Each step of her wanton destruction had been premeditated with a meticulous, calculated,  _sadistic_  brutality impossible for any animal to conceive.

"You want to  _watch_ ," Owen gasped in realization, not sure whether to be more appalled at the words themselves or the fact that he was speaking them to a dinosaur. "That's what you're trying to do. You can see our connection…"

The Indominus made the weird chuffing noise again. This time Owen recognized it as laughter, the knowledge of which, when combined with the white-hot brands assaulting his back, made him feel nauseous with disgust.

"You know, that has got to be the sickest thing I've ever heard. Do you get a kick from watching her kill me?"

Blue growled at the sound of his voice, the tendons in her legs and back quivering under strain. Owen turned his attention back to her. The raptor's teeth were still bared, sickle claws tapping in all the agitation of an aroused predator, but the fact that she had not yet attacked…

"Blue," Owen's voice was steadier this time, infused with the old kindness, yet softer, a request rather than a command. "Blue. You know me."

She tilted her head, just a tiny movement. The pulse-point at the base of her throat fluttered in betrayal of uncertainty.

The Indominus raised a front claw. Its sharp tips were still coated with glistening wetness from Owen's blood. With a slow, mocking deliberateness, she flicked her wrist, splattering dark droplets onto Blue's muzzle. Almost reflexively, the tip of the raptor's tongue darted out to lick at the liquid; the Indominus chuffed an encouraging croon, slitted pupils regarding Owen with cold mercilessness.

Owen could only watch as Blue stalked closer, the light in her eyes predatory, hardened to kill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is obviously un-beta'd. Please feel free to point out errors and tell me if I'm getting out of character.


	2. Negotiation

"You know me," Owen whispered again.

Above he could hear small rumbling noises coming from the Indominus, could even swear her head just swung side to side in taunting negation. He set his jaw and ignored the hateful animal, clamping down hard on the pain-laden fear that constantly threatened to encroach his sanity, focusing completely upon Blue. He tried to meet her eyes, to capture and hold her gaze and stare her into submission, knowing full well it was a lost cause: raptors were like sharks in their sensitivity to blood, and the excitement of the evening only served to amplify the savage side of her nature.

Nevertheless he had to try. To give up now would be to give up on his own life, and to think that the Indominus would be laughing as she watched him get eaten––

"Don't give her this, Blue." The words were spoken to the raptor, but of course she could not understand them. They were meant more for his own comfort than an actual attempt at persuasion, a last fraught act of defiance that he refused to go without. "It's not my blood you should be after. Delta and Echo, she killed them–– She's making you going to kill me too, it's like a game to her, watching us tear each other apart…"

Another snarl, another step. Blue was within arm's reach now, the tip of her muzzle hovering just beyond his raised hands, breath hot on his palm. By the warm glow of the streetlamps Owen could see the strained contours of her body, the teeth bared, the claws splayed and ready, all coiled tenseness eager to strike. The Indominus was chuffing again, he can draw this out no longer, and they all knew it.

His only comfort was to hope that whatever shop Claire and her nephews chose to hide in had access to a back door.

A muscle twitched behind Blue's eye, one of the ligaments that controlled her jaw, minute trembles continuing in a series down her neck to the fluttering throat-joint. Owen closed his eyes a second before she sprang, the echoes of a scream ringing in his ears. It was strange, how in all those inseparable years in the paddock he had long come to expect that his death would come by her teeth sooner rather than later, yet now when that moment had finally arrived after an extended overdue, he still could not bring himself to look her in the face.

He heard the raptor's claws brace against the ground as she made her leap, and steeled himself for a messy, prolonged death that held little guarantee of a swift end.

A beat passed; yet the anticipated pain did not come. The sensation of leathery scales ghosted fleetingly across his hand, then the swish of a tail and muted growl, a rush of air, nothing. His eyes flew open, just as the world above him exploded with a flurry of screams and roars.

Gone was the smug spectator who had been watching the fruits of her manipulation play out with spiteful satisfaction. The Indominus had lost her conceited composure and was reeling back, jaws gaping wide in a series of livid roars that stretched towards the sky, and Blue–– Blue was somehow clinging to the underside of her exposed neck, claws painting red streaks across the pale scales as she tore desperately at the pulsing veins beneath.

He backed against a nearby wall and leant on it for support, not daring to close his eyes again, even to ride out the sudden bout of vertigo. Cobalt stripes flashed and caught at the edges of his flickering vision; his sight involuntarily focused in upon them, hating the clench of his heart as he did so.

Enraged, the Indominus was spinning in a circle, thrashing her upper body and snapping furiously to rid herself of the unexpected attacker. Blue's dangling tail snapped dizzyingly to and fro with the hybrid's sharp movements, yet she stubbornly held on, despite the fact that the slight build of her body allowed almost no chance of dealing fatal damage – velociraptors were designed for speed, for strategic pack hunting and quick slashing kills, not with the brute strength necessary for bring down huge prey. It was nowhere near natural or logical for her to be attacking nine-ton carnivores with skin the durability of tank armor. She should have run when she still had the chance…

But none of them was running now. That chance had come and gone, and Owen wondered if raptors could know regret. Probably not; the ability of past rumination should be as beyond their comprehension as the concept of anticipating future needs, as are the notions of empathy and altruism. Despite all the poor judgements, the decisions they make are solely based on their desire to survive, nothing more. Will never  _be_  anything more.

And yet.

He could not help but wonder.

What did the Indominus say to her, during their little spiel of communication? They had been talking about  _him_ , Owen recognized in hindsight, the Indominus had swung her head – pointed – and Blue had responded with defiance. Did the Indominus offer the raptor amnesty in exchange for taking Owen's life?

An angry bellow shook the area as the great teeth of the Indominus closed on empty air. Blue's clamp on her throat was beyond the reach of her bite, but fully vulnerable to her dexterous front claws; she brought both of them up to rip furiously at her throat, and the shadow of her arms momentarily obstructed Owen's view of the smaller dinosaur so that all he had access to was the tip of a twitching tail and a shrill cry that tore him inside and out.

His hand slipped against the wall, damp smudges trailing under his palm. The Indominus reared, rising impossibly tall on powerful hind legs, and Owen saw that the raptor's distinguishing blue stripes were nearly obliterated under a mess of dark gleaming red, with more of the colour running down her embedded claws and reflecting off her teeth; the whole of the Indominus' chest and neck was also a haphazard mess of blood and curled-back flesh. Owen felt the wounds on his own back twinge in response. It belatedly came to his awareness that the persistent vehement stinging was due to the fact that he was soaked through with cold sweat.

Suddenly the Indominus shook herself fiercely, sending red droplets flying in every which way. The movement dislodged the weakening raptor, and the Indominus took this chance to hook her foreclaws under her belly in a gouging swat that flung her hard against Owen's wall.

She thudded to the ground, keening piteously. The Indominus' jaws were already plunging down, and she looked at Owen – looked at her  _alpha_  – in a last, silent, futile plea.

It was a look Owen recognized, one from long ago when Blue had still been a hatchling fresh out of her shell. She had looked at him then as if he was her entire world, like the way all young creatures once thought their parents to be the world, heroic and invincible and associated with the assurances of protection and safety and the ability to make things  _right_. That was what she was asking of him now, to do something to make things right, to  _save_  her––

But eventually the world will broaden their vision, and all young creatures must learn also that the idealized lenses through which they viewed their parents are just that: an ideal. They are limited in their abilities, and flawed in ways too many too count, whether this knowledge came from screaming matches behind slammed doors or battles for dominance over food or territory does not matter. Blue knew this, had challenged his leadership with tooth and claw ever since she grew big enough to discover his physical weakness in comparison to her species; she should have had the clearest understanding of his helplessness in a situation like this. Owen had watched her sisters die. He would do the same for her, and then close his eyes in the face of his own. The Indominus was massive, powerful, and literally indomitable. What did she expect him to do?

And yet her pleading gaze still rested on him, the Indominus' teeth had not yet completed their fatal descent. For the second time that night, the second time in his entire life, Owen turned his unprotected back to a predator who had moments ago seen him as food, and threw himself between a bloodthirsty rex and her intended prey.

"Wait – Stop!"

Once was impulsiveness, twice was certainly idiocy.

The gigantic jaws actually stopped, mere millimeters from his face, as if she too was taken aback by his stupidity. Owen got a glimpse of the furious flabbergasted surprise in the red eyes before she blasted him with a terrible roar that made his innards vibrate. Hot, rank air washed over him, making him squint; her wide-open mouth gave him an impressive view straight down her gullet. Rows of deadly teeth and bright folds of glistening flesh stood readily available for close-up observation.

Fear engulfed him in its icy shroud, closing his windpipe and heightening the agony of his wounds, making him feel faint with dizziness. He lowered his arms, breathed in and out, compelling calmness into his racing heart, forcefully repressing every vulnerable emotion with a practiced resolution born out of years of military life and working with difficult animals. When the Indominus' jaws fell closed with an ominous  _snick_ , Owen caught her gaze and held it. Though the sapient clarity in her crimson irises chilled him to the bone, he allowed no doubt to enter his own eyes, instead projecting a cool assertion that in reality was quite far from his current state of mind, but one that he had mastered the fine art of bluffing to near perfection. Nothing could be done for the fear-scent that surely lay heavy over his skin, however, Owen could only hope that the Indominus' lack of social interaction would help make up for the fault.

It was an old trick in the book, one that worked often with Blue. The Indominus stiffened and tossed her head, shuddering into a violent shake as if attempting to rid herself of an unpleasant sensation. Yet fidget as she might, she could not look away. Owen could feel the mounting frustration behind her eyes at the forced intimacy of the prolonged stare. He kept his gaze steady, authoritative, ignoring the black spots that danced across his vision.

At last the Indominus took a step back. She glared balefully at him through low snarls, and Owen allowed himself a small internal sigh of relief.

"You can understand what I'm saying, can't you?" Owen suddenly asked.

The words felt ridiculous and awkward on his tongue, but the truth they carried rang clear in his mind even as he spoke them. The Indominus had outright laughed at his horror and sabotaged his attempt to communicate with Blue at the precise critical moment. She just reacted to the word "stop" with the exact correct response in accordance with its meaning, despite the fact that nobody had trained her to do so. To be able to understand the connotation of a command without repetitive conditioning… he swallowed. "The labs – they made you more than just an animal."

The low snarls subsided. The maddened fury in the red eyes did not really dissipate, but they did take on a calmer contemplative look that he had gotten good at recognizing, fixating upon him in a slow blink as she puffed warm air through flared nostrils. This time it was  _he_  who was the uncomfortable one in the eye contact. She was certainly good at turning the tables.

Behind him, Blue whined. The raptor had dragged herself from where she'd fallen to crouch by his leg, covered in wounds that stained the ground below her black; Owen had no comfort to offer her, struggling as he already was to keep his own fears vaulted behind the façade of false bravado that was rapidly becoming harder and harder to maintain. He wanted so badly to lean against something right now…

The Indominus nodded.

Owen's mind did a double take, even if he was the one that had asked the question. He really did not expect a dinosaur to answer back, no matter how intelligent it was.

As if she had sensed his surprise and disbelief (which she probably did), the Indominus repeated the action, dipping her head once, twice, the movements slow and deliberate, never breaking eye contact. Her eyes – her unnerving, expressive eyes – gave him the confirmation that she could not do in words.

She understood.

"Oh, god…" Owen breathed. Actually he was finding it hard to breathe, the strain of shock and pain and exhaustion was forming a haze in his mind, one that he had to constantly fight through to form coherent thoughts. And he  _needed_  to be coherent for this, the Indominus was worse than a landmine. It doesn't even require a wrong step to set her off. "Okay…okay. Then you'll be able to understand…that things doesn't have to end this way."

The Indominus stared at him coldly. Owen knew that he only had one shot to talk his way out alive, she would only listen to him for as long as her patience held, no longer. But how does one negotiate for one's life with a bloodthirsty animal? People could be swayed with money, but an animal could not be coaxed to part with the food on its plate for all the temptations in the world. To do so would be to ask it to go against its own interest, and the Indominus was far too clever to fall for such a trick. Negotiation required leverage to work with, and he had none.

Unless…

Owen drew himself up to his full height, projecting false confidence before him like a shield. He did not speak until he was certain he had control of his words and voice. "You have nothing to gain by killing us," he began steadily. He lifted an uninjured hand to gesture broadly at the carnage of broken infrastructure. "All this destruction – what you did – you won't be able to get away with it. The humans are going to be back here at first light in the morning, and they are going to be in helicopters with guns and firepower to shoot you down from the sky."

He paused as he saw her growing anger, anger at his audacity to suggest that she could be bested by humans, and in a way it comforted him. Anger shown here indicated concern and comprehension: the Indominus was able to understand sufficient amounts of his words to be affronted at the slight to her power, and she cared enough about her own life to react at the mention of a potential threat. Anger meant fear, fear meant weakness, and weakness could be exploited.

A growl ripped from the Indominus, and she abruptly snapped at him, teeth closing inches from his face. Blue straightened with a shrill of alarm, but Owen had a firm grip on the situation now. He took a step forward, holding a hand out fearlessly.

"No! Stop. Eyes on me."

He didn't even have a problem using the commanding tone with her. No way was the Indominus going to kill him before he gave further explanation of the humans who would present a threat to her in the morning. She valued her life too dearly for that. He caught her eyes again, making his gaze hard and unflinching to rival hers, and saw his assumptions confirmed in their depths. She growled again, frustrated, but backed down reluctantly, instead turning around to brush her muzzle against raw burns along her side. Owen almost smiled. Intelligence had its drawbacks.

"People,  _humans_ , are going to be coming after you with  _fire_ , from the  _sky_. All those men you killed back there, all the animals, buildings you destroyed, they are going to want revenge for that. Do you understand? Revenge. Retaliation. Protection of their territory." He tried his best to stick to simpler words, placing emphasis on the important concepts. The Indominus nodded, slowly, contemplatively. "This is a fight that you cannot win. Keep this up, and you  _will die_. But it doesn't have to end this way."

Owen stopped again, to allow the Indominus time to process everything he'd said. Silence fell, the Indominus was quiet and motionless save for the deep huffs of respiration, her focus turned inwards, and Blue stood watchful to his back and side, tail weaving ever so slightly. Owen finally allowed his muscles to ease a little from their rigid posture. The entire left side of his back felt like it was on fire. Blue lifted her head to lick at the wet hem of his shirt under the vest, he wiped a hand at it, pulling away to a palmful of blood.

A movement rustled somewhere close down the street, the telltale clicks of heels against the pavement. Three heads turned, and Owen's heart lurched to see Claire standing there. So no back door then. She had his gun from where he'd dropped it when the Indominus had knocked him down, and raised it at the ready as the Indominus looked over.

"Owen?" she queried, voice steady despite the underlying fear and uncertainty.

The Indominus swung its head towards her, lips drawing up over bared teeth in the beginning of a snarl. Owen quickly motioned for her to lower the weapon. "Claire. Put the gun down. We're parleying here."

"What?!"

She stared at them, bemused, gaze going from Owen to the Indominus to Blue and back to Owen again. Owen could imagine that they must look quite the sight, a giant murder rex, a raptor, and a person that had all been trying to kill each other like fifteen minutes ago now standing close together in a weird truce group. The expression on Claire's face said it all when she flatly stated: "You're crazy."

"That's debatable, since you're the one pointing an empty gun." He motioned again. "Seriously, put it down. Talking works better."

She stared at him a moment longer, still looking as if she thought he was insane, but slowly lowered the shotgun nonetheless. Owen exhaled. The Indominus snorted and turned away, turning the snarl upon him instead. Her patience was wearing thin fast. He could hear Claire's gasp over the malevolent noise.

"It doesn't have to end this way." Owen repeated. He then enounced each word as clearly as he could, adding in hand gestures whenever possible, and feverishly hoped that the Indominus would be able to at least understand the main gist. This was the most important part. "She – Claire – is a high-ranking manager of the park. Other humans listen to her. Here's the deal: let us go, and she will speak to the others to guarantee your safety. When the humans come tomorrow, she will tell them to leave you alone."

"What? Why would I–– Why are you  _talking_  to it?!"

"Because it can understand us!" He hissed back. Claire made a disbelieving noise, but thankfully did not say anything else offensive. Her attention was focused nervously on the giant dinosaur. The Indominus was shifting around dangerously now, eyes flicking between them with a familiar gleam that he didn't like, and he had to work hard to keep the desperation out of his voice. "Just trust me on this, okay? I'm trying to get us out alive, so please help me out here."

Some of the desperation must have gotten through. "Okay," she said slowly, alternating anxious glances between him and the Indominus, though the skeptical expression grew deeper on her face. "I'll tell the ACU to leave it…leave  _you_ …alone, if you agree to let us go."

Owen sent Claire a silent look of gratitude. The Indominus swung her head again, bearing down in Claire's direction, causing her to squeal in alarm. Owen quickly darted between them and re-caught the Indominus' eyes. "Hey! None of that now–– Eyes on me!"

The Indominus ripped at the air before she backed off, fuming. The glare she met him with was fraught with repressed desires of murder. Owen pushed back with his own will, never relinquishing the grip of his leverage over the animal. "Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm offering you a choice. Kill us, and you will die tomorrow. Let us go, we all get to live." He took a deep breath. "Nod your head for yes if you agree."

It took a long, excruciating moment, but eventually her head nodded, once, twice, each dip carefully exaggerated for deliberation. Her eyes burned with resentment as she did so; she did not like being forced into submission.

Owen thought he might literally faint from relief. Claire's eyes widened in incredulity, it was clear that she had not believed him before this, which made him even more grateful for her compliance in playing along. Identical gasps sounded behind her, perfectly articulating her expression, he looked around to see Zach and Gray's heads poking out from behind the shop doors. They had witnessed the whole exchange.

"Go," he said, hurrying to Claire's side and ushering her down the street. "Get out of here before she changes her mind."

Claire needed no second prompting, but a huge tail slapped down between them when Owen tried to follow. Claire yelped and skittered back, at once the Indominus was looming over them, deep snarls rippling angrily from behind clenched teeth. Blue shrieked somewhere close by, hidden by the Indominus' massive bulk, the Indominus was all that he could see, as pale scales surrounded him in every direction. Claire's orange hair was barely visible.

"Owen!"

At the sound of Claire's voice, the mass of dinosaur around him shifted. A giant thumbed forepaw wrapped around his body, sharp talons pressed threateningly over his torso, ready to impale at a moment's clench. One razor point rested directly over his heart. Owen froze.

The Indominus' head snaked close along the ground until a bright eye ran parallel with his height. It burned with a furious intensity that rivalled that of an incinerator, and Owen almost laughed aloud at his own naivety. Why did he ever think that he could walk off the island after a confrontation with this psychotic beast with complete victory? The Indominus was smarter than the devil.  _Of course_  she would not be satisfied to settle the stakes on her life for a mere oral guarantee.

The tables have turned yet again.

"I guess I'm not leaving, huh." He said wryly.

The Indominus' only reply was a vicious snarl. Owen deflated in resignation. "Okay, fine. But let the others go. Claire, take your nephews to the evacuation dock, I'll––"

She cut him off, face flushed, whether from fear or anger he was not sure. Her tone was livid. "If you think I'm going to leave you here with this  _monster_ ––"

The Indominus jabbed her head forward and snarled right in her face. Claire broke off, but glared right back, holding her ground before the numerous teeth. The Indominus shoved Owen forward until he was directly in front of Claire, the space between them close enough to touch, and slowly began to tighten her grip.

Owen cried out as the talons started to puncture his body. The pain was made a thousand times worse by the pressure being put on his back, renewing the bleeding and igniting fresh flames. Claire grabbed at him in horror, but she could do nothing against such oppressive strength, could only watch as the talons began to draw blood. "Stop–– Stop! What do you want?!"

She was desperate enough to talk with the monster herself, Owen observed through the haze of blinding agony. He would have found it funny if it didn't hurt so much.

The Indominus jabbed her head forward again, until the tip of her muzzle nearly brushed Claire's forehead. She narrowed her eyes at the woman, then swung her muzzle towards Zach and Gray, pausing it there just long enough to be intentional. Then she stretched her neck, and pointed in the general direction down the street. The arm holding Owen retracted until he was no longer within her reach.

Claire was staring again. The Indominus might as well have been an alien.

"She wants you to leave and keep the bargain," Owen chuckled weakly. "I'm to stay as her insurance. Looks like your labs cooked up another Harvard graduate – her IQ must be what, 180? I know  _I_  wouldn't have thought of doing that."

"Your problem is that you don't think about  _anything_  before jumping in." Her voice trembled, just a little, at the end.

Owen laughed. "Yeah, I agree."

Abruptly the restraints around his body disappeared. The Indominus had lost patience with holding him, and stood over with an irritated bark which clearly urged them to get going. Owen's head spun at the sudden release. The Indominus had loosened her claws a little when Claire called for stop, so that he was no longer being impaled, but the pain made him shivery and nauseous. It was better when he could lean on the Indominus' paw for support. Claire caught him as he stumbled, and he righted himself quickly, even though the motion tugged at the gashes on his back. He stifled the scream but not the wince.

"Are you okay?"

Owen brought his voice under control. "Yeah…yeah, I'm fine. She only broke the skin."

She did not look convinced. The concern in her eyes did not dissipate as she looked him over doubtfully, noting the minimal bleeding from the claw-marks but also the labored regulation of his breathing, the sweaty pallor of his skin, the forced ease of his stance and the way his muscles strained to hold in minute trembles. She used to look like that when she inspected her employees' work for lapses. Owen knew she missed nothing.

"Hey, I'm fine." He drew her attention away gently, grateful to the night for masking the bloodstains behind him. There was no sense in worrying her, not when he couldn't leave the island anyway. Better to suck it up for a night than get eaten. "I'll be fine. You take your nephews, and… I think I can convince her to go back to my bungalow, in the restricted area. I'll try to keep her there until the ACU can come in."

"I'll let them know. And contact you before that. Please actually charge your phone for once, it makes things easier."

"A charged phone only works if the reception does." He rolled his eyes before sobering. "Be careful."

She nodded, and smiled. It did not quite mask the worry in her eyes.

"Try not to get eaten."

 


	3. Residue

It was just the three of them now, adrift in the middle of a ghost town with only the shifting shadows for company. The lights of Margaritaville still shone on from within, contrasting the darkness and illuminating deserted lobbies that hours ago had been teeming with enthusiastic crowds, lending the conical building and empty streets a desolate look that made a mockery of its former prosperity.

A muggy breeze drifted down from the east, offering little in the way of refreshment save to stir up the cloying scents of blood and brine. Somewhere to the distant south a seabird cried; a moan rose from the depths of the lagoon, long and deep and full of an insatiable, primordial hunger.

The Indominus' attention pricked up at the sound. Rumbling through her nostrils, she strode past Owen and stood snarling at the rippling black waters, angry but alert with a stiff wariness to her bearing. Emboldened by the larger predator's temporary distraction, Blue called out as well, the expectant hope in her higher-pitched voice resounding in sharp juxtaposition to the Indominus' incessant anger. She trotted down the street, head turning from side to side until she found what she was looking for half-hidden under the shadows of a building, and then the calls died on her tongue, to be replaced by a confused whine that trailed forlornly into silence. Her neck bent to sniff at her fallen sister, circling around to nudge and nip at the still carcass on the ground, chittering in vain for a response and sniffing and whining again when none was received.

She lifted her head to look at Owen, cocking ever so slightly to the side. A question.

Owen shook his head. "I'm sorry."

Then he turned away, slumping against a wall and scrubbing a dirty hand over his face, retreating into the comforting emptiness behind closed eyelids. It took all his willpower not to slide down and curl into a pathetic ball. He did not have the heart to look at Delta's body, nor the raptor remains still roasting inside the grill; he did not even want to look at Blue, who alone endured to serve as a bitter reminder of what he had lost and what she will never understand.

Yet Charlie's face still flashed persistently before him, despite his best efforts to suffocate his mind with blankness. A teasing flick of the tail, a quick glimpse of stripes and tapping claws, a lifted head over long grass swaying in the night, cocking ever so slightly to the side. A question.

It all led back to the same damned moment. Owen let out a ragged gasp, hand still covering his face. He didn't bother to watch for the Indominus this time. He wouldn't have cared if it came and ate him right then; resting forever didn't sound like such a bad idea, and he'd seen enough deaths at her jaws today. One more on her kill list would not make any difference.

But the Indominus obviously did not share his apathy. Seemingly unsatisfied with her scrutiny of the lagoon, she roared long and hard at her unseen adversary in the water, as if challenging it to show itself. Owen gritted his teeth. He half expected the mosasaur to jump out, if only to show its irritation at the horrible noise.

A minute of silence, then the answering roar came, no less savage and equal in might. The Indominus whipped away from the unperturbed dark waters and snaked her neck towards the source, somewhere far away to the west; her massive chest inhaled in a great heave, and that was enough forewarning for Owen to clap his hands over his ears before the Indominus let out the loudest sound that he ever had the misfortune to hear a living thing make. The ground literally  _vibrated_.

It was an impressive display, but the other voice hardly waited long enough for Owen's ears to stop ringing before another roar resonated across the distant treetops and rolling island hills. Though muted by the expanse of space, the sheer intensity of authority and  _challenge_  contained in the cry still carried clearly through the night, making the Indominus' tail lash in outrage.

"It's the t-rex," said Owen, wanting to avoid another screaming match. He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth, as he realized that it's near next to impossible to explain what a t-rex is to an animal that has never seen one. But the baleful eyes were already turned upon him, so he blundered on, really past caring about being eaten. "Um. Tyrannosaurus rex. It looks like you––" because she's seen her reflection in the viewing glass before, right? "––and about the same size, only with smaller arms." Now that sounded like a lovely incentive for picking a dinosaur battle, so he backtracked. "But you won't be able to see her, though. She's sealed off in her paddock, which has walls around it."

He stopped, feeling foolish, which then changed to utter surprise as the Indominus jerked an abrupt nod before turning to head back up the street, upper body balanced low to the ground. She aimed a careless swipe at Blue as she passed, barely missing the crouching raptor, who managed to leap away just in time to avoid being skewered. Blue hissed; the Indominus snarled back with scarcely a sideways glance, never breaking stride.

That bothered Owen in a disproportionate way. Blue hadn't done anything to warrant the blow – she was just sitting there. The casual, offhand manner with which the Indominus lashed at her seemed strangely…wrong, as if he was watching someone kick a dog or punch a person who was not even in their way but was merely standing close enough to make it convenient to do so.

What kind of monster did they create?

The Indominus paused at the end of the road and turned to growl at them, huge shape silhouetted by Margaritaville's glow. Though she mostly sounded impatient, Owen thought that he could discern signs of unease from the way she kept looking towards the general direction of paddock nine. It was clear that she wanted to leave.

He pushed himself painfully from the wall and tried to function through the dizziness. The raptor was still milling by Delta's body, seemingly oblivious to the Indominus' growing impatience, so he lifted his voice and called to her.

"Blue!"

Amber eyes snapped onto his without need for further prompt. Immobile reptile eyes. They were not as expressive – far less human – than those of the Indominus, Owen could not read anything from them at all. Before this night, he had never found it to be a source of insufficiency.

"We're moving," he said softly. "It's time to go."

For a moment he feared that she might ignore him, that she would rather stay with the dead of her own kind than trust in the leadership of a failed alpha. But Blue simply dipped her muzzle to brush against her fallen sister one last time, and then she was trotting towards him, though her usually graceful gait was made stiff by the numerous injuries. There was no hesitation in her steps, no reluctance to part; she knew what death was, and accepted its harsh finality as she must.

Raptors look to the living. To survival. It will always be for survival. A past that happened mere hours ago is still the past, and they do not dwell on it. Neither will they ever wish to go back and change the unchangeable nor seek to deny the undeniable, sensible creatures that they are. It was only Owen, with his foolish, sentimental,  _human_  emotions who wished those things. Who embittered himself with endless questions of  _what if_ 's and  _could have been_ 's.

Smooth scales skimmed by his fingers, broken by the crusty texture of dried blood and fresh moisture. Blue chirped up at him, unreadable eyes wide. The permanent hunger that always lurked behind those pupils were there, deep but present. That had always been the clearest, most predictable thing about her. The hunger.

"Blue."

Owen reached up slowly. His hand paused beside her cheek, hovering just above the skin and within her sight, only implementing the touch when the raptor did not move. Warm scales slid under his palm, from along her jawline to the hollow at the base of her throat; briefly he allowed his hand to linger there, noting with near reverence the strength of her beating pulse below the close skin, the proximity and pure  _vitality_  of shifting flesh and breathing animal.

Blue's head tilted as she inhaled the air and human scent. Owen's wounds still blazed with unquenched fire, and she had tasted the blood of many men this night. Her nostrils flared in an audible huff, and Owen tensed, but refused to move away. She snorted out again, then stepped forward to lean into her alpha's contact, as if she too missed and savored the warmth of a familiar touch.

Owen felt his heart give a funny little leap in his chest. His breath hitched, and momentarily he could almost let himself believe that there was genuine trust in her eyes, that it was possible, for the understanding of something  _more_ ––

From up the street, the Indominus roared, finally fed up with all the waiting. At once the illusion was shattered; Blue turned her unreadable gaze, and Owen lowered his hand, they were once again velociraptor and human, creatures separated by sixty-five million years thrown together by a twist of fate. The Indominus spun around and began to lumber into the woods, throwing a threatening growl over her shoulder that was obviously a command to follow.

"Come on," Owen said tiredly.

Blue chirped again, and together man and raptor followed the Indominus into deeper darkness.


	4. Complication

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just realized that I forgot to post chapter 4 here... Sorry for the long wait, I was hesitant to continue this story, at least not before I get a chance to see the second movie, b/c the more I'm writing this the more I'm afraid that the characters are getting ooc -- so I'd rather wait until I can watch JW2 and get a better grip on the characters. Unfortunately my place got a really late release date :(
> 
> Anyways, thank you to everyone for reading!

The journey back to the bungalow was more tedious than anything. Getting the Indominus to head there was easier than what Owen had expected, the Indominus allowed him to ride ahead on his bike and merely followed in the general direction that he set out with no further difficulties. But it was a painful process all the same: Blue flagged badly from her injuries, and the vibrations of the bike engine presented a constant source of aggravation for Owen's back. Every bump and lurch over the uneven road registered as an exacerbating jolt of agony; his left hand could barely grip the handle, much less keep the wheels on a straight path.

The Indominus' presence did little to help the predicament. She strode by his side like a police officer in supervision of her custody, long legs keeping up easily with the bike. If Owen tried to slow down to spare his wounds, she'd snap at him; if he sped up in the hopes of getting it over with, Blue fell behind. The suffocating heavy air made his head pound to the engine rhythm, weighed down by humid moisture that clung to skin and clothing and sent uncomfortable hot-cold shivers down his spine. Sweat trickled into his eyes and stung his back. What used to be a breezy ride through the jungle now became endless miles of incessant torment, and with each second that passed the temptation of darkness grew ever stronger, until it was all he could do to keep himself awake and the bike upright.

It was nearly midnight when they finally reached their destination. The Indominus approached with suspicious caution, senses obviously alert for ambush, and Owen watched warily as she made a slow circle around the bungalow and trailer. She sniffed closely at the walls and windows, paying special attention to the outline of the doors, going so far as to rub the side of her nose against the wooden frame, which caused the entire wall to creak under the strain.

"Yeah, there's no one else in there," said Owen. "It's all us."

The Indominus snorted but otherwise ignored him, continuing in her through inspection to poke at the hanging lights over the porch and craning her muzzle over to brush against the solar panels on the roof. Owen was once again struck by the enormity of her size. At over ten meters high, the hybrid towered over the little house and almost matched it in length, trailer and all. One sweep from the huge tail would flatten it like a sack of Lego bricks.

Owen would have given her credits for being extra careful and not demolishing anything if he had believed her to be capable of such consideration. He knew better, though, when the Indominus suddenly growled and swiped at the front door with a front paw, swinging her head around to acknowledge him for the first time since their arrival with an unpleasant gleam in her eyes.

Oh.

She wasn't checking for other people. She was cataloguing all the exits to make sure that her hostage doesn't run off during the night. She wanted to cage him in.

A surge of indignant anger flowed through Owen. Tyrant lizard indeed, this was getting ridiculous.

"I'm not going anywhere," he snapped.  _Control freak._

His voice came out a bit breathy, blurred by pain and weariness, but there must have been enough of  _something_  in there, because the Indominus' gaze abruptly sharpened, the redness of the sclera going hard, almost as if it could congeal. Immediately the murderous burns of old hostility sprung to the forefront, pushing back the resentful tolerance that had grudgingly started to acclimate there, and it twisted beneath her eyes, tensing and tightening like a drawn bow with an arrow twice as volatile. She lowered her bared teeth to Owen's face, growl deepening into an open threat.

Owen held his ground. The tremors running down his left side and arm could not be helped, but otherwise he did not flinch. Blue stalked out from the shadows behind him, a defensive hiss swift upon her tongue.

"We have an agreement," he reminded the Indominus forcefully, managing to get his voice to pant less this time. "Both our lives are in on this."

The bowstring twanged as the arrow snapped.

Owen scarcely had the opportunity to register the rippling snarl right by his ear before the world rushed and spun to meet him. In less than a second he was on the ground, pinned by a splayed forepaw with heavy talons digging into his chest. The jarring impact of the fall alone turned most of his senses to black, dimly he thought he heard Blue's cry, and reflexively thrust out a shaking hand to flag her down, palm grazing against familiar scales. His right arm strained beneath him, trying desperately to keep the injured side of his back off the ground.

Owen looked up at the Indominus through swimming vision that kept going dark at the corners. Or maybe it was just the darkness of the place, the night was so much more oppressive here, without the numerous street-lamps of Margaritaville to share the moon's burden. He would win this round, he knew, even as he sensed in her the hungering desire for blood and the temptation to kill; there was a greater frustration there, the frustration of restraint and the inability to act upon that desire. She understood his words and recognized the truth in them. Their welfare was too intertwined for her to risk taking his life.

She hated him for it.

Slowly, reluctantly, the overbearing weight pinning his body decreased. The Indominus lifted its paw, planting it beside him with surprising gentleness, and the enormous head lowered and tilted so that he was no longer staring up at the underside of her muzzle. A huge red eye appeared before his face, so close that Owen could make out the details of his own reflection peering out from the slitted pupil, even in the poor lighting.

It blinked, once, and the reflection was gone. Changed.

The silhouette of the new object cocked her head in the narrow darkness.

"No––" he tried to scream.

But he was too late. He was always too late. The massive head shot forward before his warning was even halfway freed of his uncooperative tongue; everything blurred in a flurry of pale scales, and then his pathetic croak was drowned out by agonized screeching as the Indominus' teeth closed and sank into warm flesh. Jaws clamped tightly over her quarry's neck and back, she dangled the struggling raptor above him, eyes blazing with triumphant mockery. Blue tried to twist her head around to bite her captor's muzzle, but the angle allowed her no purchase on the hard scales. One quick snap, a bit more force, and she would crush straight through the spine.

It was the exact same way that Delta had died.

Owen felt as if he was living in a perpetual nightmare. The kind that looped without making sense and threw every one of your fears back at you over and over again until you woke up screaming. But there was no waking up for him this time, despite the sound of Blue's endless screams drilling into his ears, this was a reality where the Indominus was the nightmare that kept repeating itself, a nightmare of the park's own creation. Over and over again, she played him – them – with the same method of manipulation, turning them against each other,  _using_  them against each other, converting affection into a weapon, sympathy into weakness, making his greatest flaw to be the fact that he  _cared_ …

_And you know that it will work every time._

Owen shivered, not from the pain. The Indominus could not speak, but he heard the malignant words inside his head as clearly as if she did, so open was her displays of cruelty. He should have learned. There is no winning against her.

"Okay," he yielded finally, lowering his eyes in submission, voice just audible above Blue's shrill efforts to free herself. Each sound shredded right through him, dragged at his innards and made everything hard to focus. "Fine. I get it. I'm  _sorry_. You're the one in control here. Let her go. Please."

The monster above his head was silent. She wanted to make him wait, most likely, as the waiting was always the most agonizing part. Owen set his jaw and resisted the temptation to look up. Fine. If she wanted to milk him for humiliation, or gloat in victory or whatever, then she can have it. It wasn't as if there was any other choice.

His internal fuming almost made him miss the Indominus' snarl of anger. It was Blue's abrupt change in the intensity of her cry, the sudden fresh burst of despairing  _pain_  in it, that made him snap his head up in alarm. From the looks about her face, the Indominus was riled up about something again, and honestly he should have gotten used to her mood swings by now, but Blue – Blue was still between her teeth, caught in the brunt of her wrath. The raptor's struggle was one of frenzied terror now, legs churning at empty air; a new round of screams pierced through the night as the Indominus gave a savage shake of her head, teeth ripping deeper with every movement.

She did not look away from Owen as she performed the act.

Hot liquid dripped onto the exposed skin of Owen's arm. With a surge of more willpower than actual strength, he forced himself upright, not shying from using the Indominus' foreleg as temporary support. The hybrid's fixed stare was telling in itself, once he'd calmed enough to think properly. This was about him and him alone, not some kind of belated retaliation for Blue's previous attacks at Margaritaville. The only reason she was hurting the raptor was because she wanted to hurt  _him_ , and she's managed to do it so cleverly, in a way that would avoid causing potentially fatal physical damage to his person – thus upholding their agreement – while achieving her goal at the same time. Under any other circumstances Owen would have been impressed. Being sadistic and mauling for the kicks is one thing. Understanding the abstract concept of emotional pain, and knowing precisely how to inflect it, is an entirely different level of capability.

But why? his mind screamed in tandem with Blue's cries, all capable thoughts flying asunder. What was this even for? Just because he had a bit of attitude when talking to the Indominus earlier? Or was it because she's pissed off by his reminder that their lives were tied by their bargain? Helpless anger bubbled from a pit in the bottom of his stomach, pounding against his insides with rage born out of the sheer unfairness of it all. Why should he, of all people, get drawn into this? Why should another suffer in his place?

Owen whipped his gaze upward at his – Blue's – tormentor, and saw his own fury mirrored in the crimson eyes, alight with a world of bitterness and frustration that blazed with a fire-like intensity, screaming hatred at life's injustice.

_This is why_ , the monster seemed to say, somehow furious and taunting at the same time. She raised her neck higher, lifting the raptor further out of his reach. More blood splattered down to mix with his own. Masticatory muscles under ashen skin flexed in anticipation; there was no assurance of bluff, not anymore. She had just purposefully destroyed every bit of predictability that Owen held leverage against her. The hybrid would be perfectly willing to carry through the killing bite if she decided that she wanted a further performance of his pain.

There is no winning against her.


End file.
